Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

The author and I are the same age, which interests me, as I can compare her young life with mine. And, while, this is more a biography of the author's mother, it made me contemplate how our history through our own eyes is a different history than through our parent's scope. How much do I understand of my own mother's history?
There is no question that the background of Alexandra Fuller's life was exotic by our standards, and her mother's just so. Africa. "Nicola Fuller of Central Africa" is how her mother introduces herself.
I was learning the rules of flashlight tag, the magic of Halloween (you really knock on strangers doors and they give you candy?) and how to identify jewel weed- the natural antidote for poison ivy- by pushing a leaf of the plant under the creek it grows near and watching the leaf become a weaving silver infinity of moonlight. I was trying to stay up past my bedtime in the summer, and perfect my hula-hooping.
Alexandra Fuller, daughter of Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, was living through the Rhodesian Civil War, learning how to kill puff adders and riding around in the back of a bomb-proofed Landrover dressed as an insecticide drum. Three siblings were lost before the age of two, and with it went an awful lot of Nicola Fuller of Central Africa's sanity. Understandable enough as a mother. Confusing as a child.
So, how can this book be humorous? Hopeful? Well, it just is. I laughed out loud and feel like Alexandra is an old friend.
This is a book you can share with your teens. Older teens, certainly, and younger teens as well. I feel so triumphant when a worthy book can be handed over to the kids. It will enlarge their imaginations in ways that romances about vampires never can.
And, I would truly enjoy joining the Fuller family for cocktails under the Tree of Forgetfulness.